Growing Hope has partnered in the development of over 25 community & school garden (and greenhouse) sites throughout Washtenaw County. Most of the gardens are managed by their lead partner, whether a neighborhood association, a school team, a group of residents, or a nonprofit organization. As a partner, Growing Hope provides both start up support (through our Community & School Garden Development Institute) and ongoing support. Each partnership looks different-- in some places, we've helped build raised beds, and our partner has taken it from there. For other partners we provide liability insurance or are a fiscal agent for plot fees. With still others we partner through ongoing programming-- the way we did for two years with Home-Grown Health at Ypsilanti Head Start. Some of the gardens we helped our partners start are no longer active. In 2008 we're implementing Partnership Agreements to help us manage our relationships with such diverse partners!

We like to categorize gardens into different types-- based on their primary goals or functions. Many gardens fall into more than one of these categories:

• Neighborhood gardens: Often what people think of as a "traditional" community garden, neighbors often rent or adopt plots-- sometimes for a fee-- most often to grow healthy fruits & veggies.
• Learning gardens: When a garden's primary goal is education, whether in a school setting, to encourage intergenerational learning, or to share job skills.
• Sharing gardens: While all of our partner gardens that grow veggies/fruits participate in Plant A Row for the Hungry, some gardens' primary purpose is growing food for donation to neighbors in need. Whether to donate to Food Gatherers or distributing directly to neighbors, sharing the harvest helps to increase our community's food security.
• Market gardens: When we connect gardening with entrepeneurism-- whether to sell our harvests at farmers' markets, or turn them into a value-added product (think salsa from tomatoes), we become market gardeners. What better than local, green, garden-based business that also feed and beautify our communities?
• Healing gardens: Also called horticultural therapy, this type of garden is intent on healing mind and body.

Some of the our partner neighborhood gardens have organic plots available for rental-- some in raised beds, and others in the ground. These plots vary in size from 4x4 feet to 8x16 feet. Those gardens all offer sliding scale plot fees, though some fill up very quickly! At other sites, the organization is more informal-- without contracts or fees-- but provide an opportunity for you to volunteer and grow either in some space of your own or in a communal setting. The following are gardens that may have growing space available for a fee or in exchange for volunteering:

• Midtown Community Garden, West Middle School Community Garden, and Recreation Park Community Garden. These three plot-rental style gardens work together to use the same garden guidelines and applications. Contact them directly to see about availability!
• Frog Island Community Garden. This garden is a work of art, having been built in 2007 using many creative and reclaimed materials. Contact amandarb7(at)hotmail(dot)com for info about plot availability!
• Chidester Place Community Garden. Residents at Chidester Place, on the southside of Ypsi near the UAW & Visteon plant, have been gardening in the ground and raised beds (including wheelchair accessible beds)for five years. The garden has both shared area and individual plots. Contact us and we'll connect you with their leadership team.
• Habitat for Humanity Homeowners Garden. Off of West Michigan Ave near Mansfield in Ypsi, this garden is open to new leadership this year. The past garden steward is still figuring out if all of the garden will be available this year. Contact us if you'd like to learn more.
• Gateway Community Garden. Under development this spring, this new garden on West Michigan Ave in Ypsi will have raised bed plots. Contact us at Growing Hope and we'll connect you with Kimberly, their lead organizer.

You can see a map of most of the garden sites at here.